New Delhi, Feb. 28 -- Decades after the textile mill chimneys have faded from the Mumbai skyline, indelibly altering the demographics, architecture and culture of the city's central districts, the fate of displaced textile workers continues to-surprisingly-animate political discussions. The campaigning for and outcome of elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country's richest urban local body by a mile, for instance, provide insights into how the once-ubiquitous textile factory continues to haunt collective memory.

The textile factories were not mere physical symbols of industrial productivity and commerce but cradles for community development as well, providing livelihood for over 250,000 workers who had mostly ...